Pretied tailless necktie



Feb. 20, 1968 J. w. LESS 3,369,257

PRETIED TAILLESS NECKTIE Filed July 14, 1966 IN VEN TOR. JbSEPI-r W Lass29 J By M L ATTORNEYS United States l ater'lt Ofiice 3,369,257 PatentedFeb. 20, 1968 3,369,257 PRETIED TAILLESS NECKTIE Joseph W. Less,One-In-Hand Tie Co., P.O. Box 449, Clinton, Iowa 52732 Filed July 14,1966, Ser. No. 565,133 Claims. (Cl. 2150) This invention relates topretied tailless neckties, and more particularly, to pretied taillessneckties which can be produced with aminimum of labor and material.

Conventional pretied full length neckties, i.e., those wherein the tiebody extends from a wearers collar area to his waist area, are usuallyformed from a single length of elongated necktie material. The knot,typically having the appearance of a conventional four-in-hand knot, isformed on a knot shaping support in any of several ways well known inthe art. The tie body depends from the knot and extends towards thewearers waist area. Also, either a full length tail or back portion or arelatively short tail portion extends from the knot behind the front ormain tie body, so as to be hidden behind the main tie body portion. Thetail portion is usually tacked, as by sewing, to the front portion.

It is known to make pretied ties without the usual tail portion, asdisclosed in U.S. Patent 2,804,627, issued Sept. 3, 1957, to I. W. Less.However, such ties, though offering a considerable saving in material,have heretofore required a considerable amount of manual labor informing the knot structure, and there has been a continuing need for apretied tailless tie which would minimize both labor and material so asto markedly reduce the cost of manufacture.

Accordingly, an object of this invention is to provide new and improvedpretied tailless neckties.

Another object is to provide new and improved pretied tailless necktiesformed from a knot shaping support and a closed loop of material havinga strip of necktie material depending therefrom.

Another object is to provide new and improved pretied tailless necktieswhich are easily constructed from a minimum amount of necktie materialwith a minimum amount of manual effort, thereby achieving substantialeconomies.

Broadly considered, pretied tailless ties according to the inventioninclude a closed loop of necktie material and an elongated portion orstrip of necktie material extending away from the loop in tangentialfashion. The loop is arranged as a pretied knot on a knot formingsupport equipped with facilities for attaching the tie at the wearerscollar, and the strip depends from the pretied knot to constitute thebody portion of the tie. A portion of the loop passes across the frontof the knot forming support to constitute a knot face, and the remainderof the loop extends rearwardly at both sides of the support. Theremainder of the loop passes behind the support and over the topthereof, and thence downwardly between the support and the knot faceportion of the loop, the junction between the loop and the strip beinglocated between the knot face portion and the support so as to be hiddenwithin the knot structure.

In order that the manner in which the foregoing and other objects areachieved in accordance with the invention can be understood in detail,particularly advantageous embodiments of the invention will be describedwith reference to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of thisspecification, and wherein:

FIGS. 1 and 2 are front and side elevational views, respectively, of apretied tailless tie in accordance with one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a front elevational view of a knot shaping support employed inthe necktie of FIG. 1;

FIGS. 4 and 5 are perspective views illustrating sequential steps inconstruction of the necktie of FIG. 1;

FIGS. 6 and 7 are perspective and side elevational views, respectively,of the tie blank for the necktie of FIG. 1;

FIG. 8 is a view similar to FIG. 6 showing a tie blank in gccordancewith another embodiment of the invention; an

FIG. 9 is a side elevational view of a. pretied tailless tie inaccordance with still another embodiment.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a pretied tailless necktie 10 comprises apretied knot 11 and a main tie body portion 14 depending therefrom,which is visible to an observer viewing the wearer of the necktie. Knot11 has a knot face 12, and is formed on a knot shaping support 13. Knot11 has a V-shape which resembles that of a conventional four-in-hand,although it will be understood that knot 11 may have other shapes.

In FIG. 3, knot shaping support 13 comprises an inverted frusto-conicalportion 16 defined by converging sides 17, bottom edge 18 and a top edge19. From the upper corners of frusto-conical portion 16, two arms 21extend upwardly and outwardly and are adapted to fit under the collar ofa wearer in a conventional manner. A book 23 is provided for attachingnecktie 10 and support 13 at the wearers collar. Knot shaping support 13is one of many conventional such devices and any similar conventionalknot shaping support, having a main body portion with two upwardly andoutwardly extending arms, may be used.

Attention is directed to FIGS. 6 and 7, wherein tie blank 26 comprises aloop 27 with a half-twist in it and an elongated strip 28 depending fromloop 27, the loop and strip being formed from a single length of necktiematerial. Dependent strip 28 will eventually become tie body 14 when tieblank 26 is assembled to produce the pretied tailless necktie 10, shownin FIG. 1. Loop 27, having a half twist therein, forms what is known inthe world of mathematics as a Mobius strip; that is a strip having onecontinuous edge and one continuous side.

In order to form loop 27 shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the tailend 31 of tieblank 26 (as distinguished from tip 29 on the end of strip 28) is turnedover once and placed against strip 28 intermediate and 31 and tip 29.End 31 is then attached to strip 28 by a grommet 32 or by any otherconventional means such as stitches, staples, or the like.

In FIGS. 4 and 5, when assembling necktie 10, a portion 33 of loop 27 ispassed across the front of the frusto conical portion 16 of knot shapingsupport 13. Portion 33 eventually becomes knot face 12 when necktie 10is fully assembled. The remainder of loop 27 is then folded upwardly tothe rear along the converging sides 17 of support 13. At this point, afolded end 34 extends upwardly behind support 13 and strip 28 extendsfrom just behind folded end 34 upwardly behind support 13 (FIG. 4).

The next step is to bring folded end 34 and strip 28 downwardly, asindicated by arrow 37 (FIG. 4) and then pass them between portion 33 andthe front of frustoconical portion 16 of support 13, as indicated byarrow 38 (FIG. 5). Strip 28 is then pulled down to its fullest extent,as the rest of loop 27 is molded into knot 11 (FIG. 1). As best seen inFIG. 2, folded end 34 does not extend below the bottom edge of knot 11and grommet 32 is located behind knot face 12.

Although folded end 34 and grommet 32 have been described as notextending beyond the bottom edge of knot 11, that is, as being confinedwithin the knot structure between knot face 12 and the front offrusto-conical portion 16 of support 13, it will be understood that theposition of folded end 34 depends upon the length of loop 27. If aslightly longer loop 27 were employed, folded end 34 would extend for avery short distance below the bottom edge of knot 11 (see FIG. 9). Theposition of folded end 34 with respect to knot 11 is not critical to theprinciples of the invention and is a matter of choice depending upon thelength of loop 27. Of course, the smaller the loop 27, the closer foldedend 34 is to knot 11 and the less material used.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that loop 27, having ahalf-twist therein, and dependent strip 23 may be secured together inother ways than that described with respect to FIGS. 6 and 7. Forexample, loop 27 and strip 28 may be formed from separate lengths ofmate rial. Strip 28 is then attached to loop 27 by a grommet 32,stitches, or the like. Or, the two ends of loop 27 and the end of strip28 may all be placed in overlapping relationship, and then attachedtogether by grommet 32. However, it should be noted that the attachmentof strip 28 to loop 27 should take place at some point where the grommetor stitches will not show when necktie is worn by the wearer. Althoughgrommet 32 has been described as being located between knot face 12 andfront portion 16 of support 13, it will be apparent to those skilled inthe art that loop 27 and strip 28 may be manipulated so that grommet 32may actually be located behind support 13. It should be noted that, whenassembled in this manner, grommet 32 should be far enough behind support16 so that it does not show when worn by the wearer.

In FIG. 8, there is shown another embodiment of a pretied taillessnecktie of the invention. The necktie is formed from a tie blank 46comprising a closed loop 47 and an elongated strip 48 depending fromloop 47, the loop and strip being formed from a single length of necktiematerial. It is noted that loop '47 differs from loop 27 (FIG. -6) inthat loop 47 does not have a half-twist in it. Dependent strip 48 willeventually become the body 14 and loop 47 will be manipulated to becomeknot 11 (FIG. 1) when the blank 46 is assembled to produce the pretiedtailless necktie shown in FIG. 1.

In order to form loop 47 (FIG. 8), the tailend 49 of the blank 46 (asdistinguished from tip 51 on the end of strip '48) is placed againststrip 48 intermediate tailend 49 and tip 51. Tailend 49 is then attachedto strip 48 by a grommet 52, or any other similar conventional device,such as a double-headed pin, or the like, which allows relative pivotalmovement between strip 43 and tailend 49 of strip 48 about grommet 52.

The blank 46 is manipulated about support 13, in a manner similar tothat described with respect to FIGS. 4 and 5, to form necktie 10. Inbrief, a portion 53 of loop 47 is passed across the front of portion 16of support 13. I

The remainder of loop 47 is then folded upwardly to the rear along theconverging sides 17 of support 13. Then, strip 48 is brought downwardlyand passed between portion 53 of loop 47 and portion 16 of support 13.When strip 48 is so brought downwardly, tailend 49 and strip 48 pivotrelative to one another about grommet 52. This pivoting action permitsstrip 48 to be pulled downwardly to its fullest extent so that loop 47is molded into a smooth knot.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that loop and the stripmaybe formed from separate lengths of material (FIG. 4). The ends of theloop and the end of the strip are placed in overlapping relationship andattached together by a grommet. Whether formed from a single length ofmaterial, or from two lengths of material, it will be apparent to thoseskilled in the art that the as- 4 sembly of necktie 10, shown in FIG. 8,is facilitated due to the relative pivotal movement between end 49 andstrip 48 about grommet 52.

It is to be understood that the embodiments described above are merelyillustrative of the principles of the invention and other embodimentsmay be devised without departing from the scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. A pretied tailless necktie, comprising a tie blank, having a closedloop of necktie material; and a strip of necktie material depending fromthe loop; and

a knot shaping support having a front and a back, with bottom and topedges,

the loop being arranged as a pretied knot on the support, with a firstportion of the loop passing across the front of the support from side toside thereof, and a second portion of the loop extending rearwardly atboth sides of the support,

the remainder of the loop extending at least to the top edge of thesupport,

the strip depending from the support from a location between the firstportion and the front of the support, whereby the first portionconstitutes a knot face and the strip depends therefrom to constitute atie body.

2. A pretied tailless necktie, according to claim 1 wherein the loop andthe strip are formed from a single length of necktie material.

3. A necktie according to claim 2, wherein one end of the single lengthof necktie material is at tached to that surface of the length ofnecktie material which is adjacent the wearers shirt front when the tieis worn, such attachment completing the loop.

4. A necktie according to claim 3, wherein the one end is attached tothe length of material to complete the loop, so that relative pivotalmovement is permitted between the dependent strip and the loop.

5. A necktie according to claim 4, wherein the one end is attached tothe length of material to complete the loop by means of a grommet-likedevice.

6. A necktie according to claim 4 wherein the loop has a one-half twisttherein.

7. A necktie according to claim 1, wherein the closed loop and the stripare formed from separate lengths of necktie material.

8. A necktie according to claim 7, wherein said strip is attached to theloop so that relative pivotal {movement is permitted between the stripand the 9. A necktie according to claim 8, wherein the strip is attachedto the loop by means of a grommet-like device.

10. A necktie according to claim 1, wherein the junction between thestrip and the loop is disposed between the knot face portion of the loopand the front of the support and is fully covered by the knot faceportion.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,730,834 10/1929 Webber 2l533,181,175 5/1965 Less 2-15O PATRICK D. LAWSON, Primary Examiner.

1. A PRETIED TAILLESS NECKTIE, COMPRISING A TIE BLANK, HAVING A CLOSEDLOOP OF NECKTIE MATERIAL; AND A STRIP OF NECKTIE MATERIAL DEPENDING FROMTHE LOOP; AND A KNOT SHAPING SUPPORT HAVING A FRONT AND A BACK, WITHBOTTOM AND TOP EDGES, THE LOOP BEING ARRANGED AS A PRETIED KNOT ON THESUPPORT, WITH A FIRST PORTION OF THE LOOP PASSING ACROSS THE FRONT OFTHE SUPPORT FROM SIDE TO SIDE THEREOF, AND A SECOND PORTION OF THE LOOPEXTENDING REARWARDLY AT BOTH SIDES OF THE SUPPORT, THE REMAINDER OF THELOOP EXTENDING AT LEAST TO THE TOP EDGE OF THE SUPPORT, THE STRIPDEPENDING FROM THE SUPPORT FROM A LOCATION BETWEEN THE FIRST PORTION ANDTHE FRONT OF THE SUPPORT, WHEREBY THE FIRST PORTION CONSTITUTES A KNOTFACE AND THE STRIP DEPENDS THEREFROM TO CONSTITUTE A TIE BODY.